Unlearn what B-school taught you

Business is fundamentally simple. It's we who make it complicated. When you are able to cut to the core, say, peel away the layers to get to the essence, business is quite straightforward. It is essentially about how you create value for the customer and how you are able to capture that value, as much of it, at as low a cost as possible.

What happens over a period of time is that we put several layers around the core essence of business, whether it is at the workplace or a B-school. As a result, we tend to get into a complexity that is our own creation. If you look at some of the great business leaders, they have stuck to or built the core proposition.

They know what value proposition they want to give the customer and single-handedly drive their business towards it in an extremely focussed manner. If you are able to do that, I think half your problem is solved. So cut out all the power points -- if you have something to say, be precise, clear and simple. Take the example of telegrams for which we pay by the word.

Every extra word has a cost to it. Similarly, I strongly believe that there is a cost you pay for complexity. At B-schools or the workplace, people somehow feel that if you are able to complicate things, you are able to create more reason for your existence.

There is a tendency to get seduced by the methodologies and tools and lay on a lot of theories and jargon that complicates matters. You should not fall in love with the tools just because you are using them. Ask yourself: how are these tools going to enable me? Will they assist me in creating and capturing value proposition? If they don't, throw them out.

Having said that however, B-schools do have lessons to teach. The most important thing that a good B-school helps you with is that it brings you in close contact with the best talent in the country. This enhances your mental faculties and stimulates your thinking. If you look at a business, it is fundamentally about theoretical experiences, sitting back and reflecting on those experiences and learning from them.

What you need to do, however, is focus on what value you derive from what you are taught. Often, a lot of students -- or even young professionals, for that matter -- get a high level of comfort in living with the latest buzzwords and jargon. That often holds you back from the truth.

So often in the first 10 years of your career you keep filling ditches. But it's only after you empty those ditches, that is, unlearn a lot of things you have been taught, that you manage to get to the core proposition.

So what is it that we need to succeed in business? First comes hunger; that is, how hungry you are to get to your goal. Even if you are not outstandingly brilliant, but have the hunger to succeed, it makes a lot of difference. As Martina Navratilova put it -- and you don't always have to learn from the Tom Peters and Peter Druckers -- "People who talk about there being no winners or losers are losers themselves."

Whenever I recruit people, I try to find out how hungry they are -- for the job, achieving certain objectives or changing the world. If that drive is there, half the battle is already won. Training, investing in the person and giving him a clear direction come later.

We often talk about the four Ps in business, that is, product, price, place and promotion. It is a standard theme in B-school education -- you learn it everyday. I have realised that there are two more Ps. The fifth P is "people".

According to David Ogilvy, "If you hire people who are better than you, then over a period of time, you will be in the company of giants." On the other hand, if you hire someone smaller than you, and if he hires someone smaller than him, and so on, you'll soon be running a company of pygmies! So to build a sound business, you need to get the best people, both in terms of quality and their hunger to succeed.

The sixth P is "pace". This is particularly relevant when we look at the technology business where products get obsolete every three months. A new technology comes out almost every other year and it changes the playing field. In this industry, the people who succeed are those who unlearn the past quickly and move on to adapt to what the future offers.

It may take two years to get to the point where you think you are absolutely right -- by when you realise that the market has passed you by. So, it is essential that you change all the time, and the faster you change the better it is. That means that you probably need to make some trade-offs in terms of educated guesses and risks.

But then business is all about taking risks. You calibrate the risk to the pay-off. While B-schools talk a lot about risk management, at the end of the day it's the decision (risk) that you take in the real world that counts. These decisions have consequences -- for you, your employees, your company and so on.

But if you don't take those decisions, it can often be a bigger risk. For instance, Intel was initially into memory chips, but then it realised that its business was taking a beating since the technology was fast becoming obsolete. It took a risk and entered the microprocessor business. The risk paid off.

When you are working in large organisations, one of the biggest skills that stands you in good stead is not only knowing how to sell ideas but also sell yourself in the right way.

All B-schools teach you how to sell products -- everything from chewing gum to cars. But no B-school really tells you how to sell yourself. But if you want to be taken seriously, you need to sell yourself to the organisation, to your customers and to the people who work for you.

In a few months of joining an organisation you are branded, which probably stays with you as you climb up the ladder. You must be clear about what kind of brand you want to be.

Ravi Swaminathan is vice president, HP , Personal Systems Group. He is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from where he graduated in 1977

As told to: Amit Ranjan Rai